DeviantArt user *nurse-stimpy painted this, acrylic on canvas, for her love Gustav, "who makes awesome games," she said. Check out the highlights for today:
Tiger Electronics, creator of inexpensive handheld games like Electronic Bowling (admit it, you hid one in your Trapper Keeper), have had plenty of hits and misses with their products over the years. One of their flops was the R-Zone X.P.G. Xtreme Pocket Game, a handheld gaming machine released in 1995. The games were craptastic, the design a little too clunky, and the red-on-black graphics were tolerable only if you closed your eyes and jabbed the corner of your sockets with your pinky. But hey, gotta try and oust the Game Boy, right?
The R-Zone was released in three versions during its lifespan: one with a traditional layout pictured above, a souped-up (and enlarged) model with a color screen, and a version with a headset and flip-down screen for your right eye that just-so-happened to hit store shelves a year after the Virtual Boy. And we thought hardware ganking was unique to this century!
Take a look at the original R-Zone Headset commercial after the break. Ready to rip into the R-Zone?
We can't tell you how many quarters that we lost to this machine, but it was at least several wheelbarrows full. Knights of the Round was like Double Dragon set in the days of King Arthur, and it was a heck of a lot better than Gauntlet.
Take a trip down memory lane with ScrewAttack's VideoGame Vault look to the past.
Licenses? Who needs licenses? Not 2K Sports, who today announced a massive lineup of classic football stars would grace All-Pro Football 2K8. While EA holds the exclusive rights to use NFL trademarks and current player likenesses, 2K has lined up practically every retired player you've ever heard of, and probably a few you haven't, for the roster of their re-entry into the football simulation market.
The list of players is presented on the game page is in a super-annoying Flash format, but intrepid Joystiq tipster Mugginns has compiled them all in an easy to scan text list, organized by position and alphabetical order. Check it out after the jump.
You know how Nintendo's Virtual Console Monday has become like this totally reliable weekly retro-release date? Well, apparently Sony's keen on catching up. Tomorrow, the Japanese division will release a PS1 title for every week PlayStation 3's been on the market, and then some; 25 games in all. While the list is cluttered with oldies you've never heard of -- Marl Oukoku no Ningyou Hime, Yaku Tsu Noroi no Game, etc. -- the massive outpouring is perhaps a sign that Sony's ready to settle into an e-Distribution rhythm. (Hopefully one not marked by random bursts of content.)
It's possible that Sony sat on this stockpile in anticipation of PS3's firmware 1.7, which unlocks the system's "virtual console." But then, only 11 of the releases are actually compatible with PS3. Seemingly odd, until you consider that maybe Sony really has locked these downloads away for tomorrow's discharge; that is, perhaps the 14 games only playable on PSP are of the old, profoundly incompatible sort that will be straightened out by May. One thing's certain, working on PS3 or not, all 'Game Archive' titles are now subject to a new tax-inclusive price, bringing the cost per download up from ¥525 to ¥600 (about a 63-cent hike).
Tired of wasting time reading the news when you could be playing games? Wait, don't leave! OK, fine, go. We understand we can't compete with the games we cover. But at least promise us you'll go play a game like Newsbreaker so you can keep up with the headlines as you get your game on.
At first glance, Newsbreaker seems to be just the latest in a line of extremely generic Breakout clones, this time in the form of an MSNBC advergame. What's makes the game special is what is quite possibly the first recorded use of live news headlines as powerups. That's right, headlines pulled from MSNBC feeds slowly fall from some busted bricks, and catching 25 of them gets you an extra life. What's more, each caught headline is saved so you can read the full story once you're done playing.
We feel this combination of games and news is a good first step to combating the growing media illiteracy epidemic, but why stop there? How about giving Achievement Points for reading the newspaper every morning? Hiding secret codes for today's hottest games in the nightly news broadcast? Offering Gamestop gift certificates for listening to NPR? The game industry could single-handedly save the news business!
As we've previously mentioned, the Metroid-inspired Commodore 64 game Turrican might be making a return to systems, courtesy of original developer Factor 5. In yet another interview, this time with Gamasutra, president Julian Eggebrecht mentioned that they are still exploring ways to bring this series back.
He's particularly intrigued with the way that Metroid Prime helped relaunch that franchise, turning it from a sidescroller into 3D, and wants to do the same with Turrican. Maybe without looking so much like Metroid this time around.
The trouble is, any time you roll your character up into a ball, people are going to scream Metroid ... so get to work on fixing that, Factor 5.
We've blogged about French case modder Kotomi before, but this one is special. It's not just a fresh coat of paint on an aging console -- a temporary elixir of gaming youth -- but rather a conceptual reimagining. Kotomi has crammed a Super Nintendo into the diminutuve and distinct stylings of Nintendo's latest console, the Wii. If you've been gobbling up Virtual Console titles faster than you can say "how many Wii points?" we'd recommend yard sale bounty coupled with a classic console. The Wii case? While not necessary, it has a certain je ne sais quoi, no?
We've posted crazy eBay auctions before, mostly concerning massive collections. This is a bit more unique. Extra Life's Scott Johnson has sketched his rendition of Mario on what we hope is a brand new toilet seat. Of course, the jokes regarding an Italian plumber (never seen on the job, mind you) immortalized on porcelain are far too many.
Johnson is putting the seat on eBay; the proceeds go to the charitable cause of himself -- specifically, he's putting it towards Photoshop CS3. Current bid is $72 and the minimum for Photoshop is $199 for the basic CS3 upgrade.
The time lapse of his creation, featured on Extra Life TV #9 , is embedded after break.
It sounds like Chrono Triggers' auction value won't be waning anytime soon. In an interview with Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream (translated by IGN), 12-year Square Enix employee and Final Fantasy Versus XIII producer Shinji Hashimoto makes strong assertions that we won't be seeing many Square Enix titles on Nintendo's Virtual Console for awhile.
"We feel that the Japanese game market still requires media," he said. "Also, FF and Dragon Quest are played by a wide range of users, from children to adults, so there are limitations when you consider the problems that we would have with billing systems."
So the prospects of Square Enix's pre-FFVII catalog arriving in Wii's online store shelves are pretty grim in Japan, but what about elsewhere? It's certainly not ruled out by Hashimoto's words, but Europe and to a greater extent North America are much lower on the pecking order in terms of Virtual Console releases.
Commodore Gaming, a conglomerate formed when several Dutch upstarts joined forces in 2005 to buy the Commodore name (but not the technology or suicidal business sense), is finally ready for action. Today the company began selling two high-end Wintel boxes in the UK, Ireland, and online. Starting at £1759 (just over $3500 at the current exchange rate), these juggernauts are a pricey way to play all those PC games you've already been playing on a cheaper rig. But wait! For no additional charge, you can customize your Commodore with a fruity paint job of your choice called a "C-Kin." Are you slavering with excitement yet?
Is a new video of a five-minute speed run through the original Super Mario Bros. a world record? Well, it depends on who you ask.
The Speed Demos Archive, which posted the video, certainly thinks so. In a recent news post, they talk up the video as the game being "beaten more quickly than is allowed by the rules of a certain other site which amusingly considers itself to be the authority on speed records." That other site is long-time video game scorekeeper Twin Galaxies, which currently establishes the record as a slower but still blazing 5:08 run by Scott Kessler.
That gap is the result of some rather stringent rules set forth by Twin Galaxies -- esoteric glitches like wall jumps, pipe redirects and walking through walls are not allowed by the scorekeepers. These glitches aren't cheating per se -- they're all possible in the official, unaltered version of the game -- but they do go against what Twin Galaxies calls "programmer intent," and the spirit of how the game is meant be played
What's the difference? Well, eight seconds, which is a lifetime in the world of competitive speed running. Which view is more valid? Decide for yourself. Below, we've posted three videos: one from Speed Demos Archive; one of a slightly slower "TG legal" run; and one of an emulator-enhanced (but still technically possible) run from TASvideos.com. Let the battle begin.
Today's Virtual Console releases bestow upon our Wii systems a little Lode Runner action, more sci-fi space shooting, and a colorful side-scrolling action RPG. And because video games are indistinguishable from real life, soon you'll be overwhelmed with powerful urges to steal gold, pilot a spacecraft, and go on a quest to rescue a princess and fight a gigantic mushroom named Myeonid.
The following games will hit the Wii Virtual Console at 9 a.m. PST, which is noon EST and 4 a.m. on the South Pole.
Gradius III (SNES, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points)
Wonder Boy in Monster World (Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points)
Battle Lode Runner (TurboGrafx 16, 1-5 players, 600 Wii Points)
These wonderful shoes were personally styled by Jamie, whose boyfriend Scars sent a gallery of photos to Go Nintendo. We're jealous of the sexy footwear. Check out the highlights for today:
[UPDATE: It seems this story was based on this original report from a satire web site. Joystiq regrets the error.]
With the recent success of the Final Fantasy Advance games on the GBA and the 3D remake of Final Fantasy III on the DS, Square-Enix has announced a new business model that, well, isn't new at all. The company has decided to focus on re-releasing old games for new systems, punching up the visuals and adding bonus content in the process. Get ready to own the original Final Fantasy ... again.
Cashing in on gamers' nostalgia has been profitable for many companies (especially Nintendo), and despite our cries to stop the ports and sequels, we still hand over the cash. We can't say we're thrilled with the news, but it does bring a glimmer of hope for some of the company's forgotten franchises.
First person to say "FFVII ON TEH PS3" or "CHRONO TRIGGER 3D ON THEE DS!!!1" wins a cookie.
